Artist Journal
Three years of Training at WAAPA
Physical Theatre
Devising
Playwriting
Suzuki Method of Actor Training
Noh Theatre at ITI in Singapore
Intercultural Theatre
Anne Bogart's Viewpoints
Site-Specific Theatre
Puppetry
Community Engagement
Multi-sensory and Immersive Theatre
Generating Meaningful Experiences
Collaborating Through the Creative Process
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In 2023, at 23 years old, I began studying the BPA at WAAPA with a few years’ experience already in performing and devising at WAYTCO under the previous Artistic Director James Berlyn.
Moving to WAAPA was a different ball game as I settled into a completely new way of living, working with an ensemble of 26 people and training in voice, movement, acting and university academia.
Over the last three years, I have encountered and interrogated a plethora of unique performance, production and design contexts in pursuit of a sustainable, safe and ethical performing arts practice.
Some key forms include: Intercultural Theatre, Physical Theatre, Suzuki, Noh Theatre at ITI in Singapore, Viewpoints, Site-specific theatre, Puppetry performance and puppet making, Community engaged arts practices, Playwriting skills, especially mentorship by Sam Nerida, Multi-sensory and immersive theatre, especially in Solos, and contemporary and experimental scenographic practices in Tilt
Reflective Journal Entry
20 Nov 2025
some notes on my emerging intercultural theatre practice
Storytelling, Placemaking and Worldbuilding are fundamental indicators in my emerging arts practice. In everything I create, I strive for it to be culturally grounded, made in respectful partnership with the community. Scholarship by Marrugeku, Australia's leading Indigenous Intercultural Theatre Company, and the text Dramatrugies of Interweaving (2021) are integral to this. Marrugeku's co-Artistic Director Rachael Swain highlights the importance of "listening hard", mutual respect, deep exchange and feeling vulnerable as key indicators of being on the right track when making intercultural work (p. 14, 2006).
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Feminist intercultural theatre scholarship and dramaturgies of interweaving have been especially influential in my third year of study after training in Singapore and exploring cross-cultural collaborative practices. My emerging practice in transcultural collaborations must consider the following ethical questions:
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As an artist, how can I disrupt the male-dominated history of intercultural theatre to build more truthful, feminist and culturally grounded representations of women?
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How can we weave together new understandings in intercultural collaborations without replicating colonial dynamics?
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How can we create long-term cross-cultural relationships rather than just a momentary exchange?
creative resilience
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Creativity and Collaboration Lectures
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Academic Discoveries
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Solos
Wow! That lecture with Dr Lucinda Coleman was so good. I left feeling so inspired, wanting to develop my strength in creative resilience, but little did I know that it was already within me.
When I graduate this year, one of my goals is to “put something in” to my creative practice everyday, as Dr Coleman spoke about today. There's this dance artist called Maggi Phillips who encouraged us to “read every day” and receive from country on Noongar Boodjar. This reminds me of The Dreaming Path (2022) book, in which building regular creative habits will “contribute to your ability to get back up when you have been knocked down” (Callaghan, p. 186).
Resilience is a skill that I want to grow, and after falling down, the key is to get back up again, which I have done over and over again throughout my time here.
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I now realise I actually have a lot more creative resilience within me than I thought; I just had to be aware of it.
Creative Resilience
14 May 2025
An excerpt from my journal
Academic Discoveries
Additionally, in the Creativity and Collaboration lectures, a theoretical concept I learned that helped me when devising (especially during TILT) was Tuckman’s group-dynamics model “Forming–Storming–Norming–Performing". This prioritises process over hierarchy, valuing conflict and consensus as part of creative development. During TILT, I learned the importance and relevance of this model, and it helped guide me during tough times.
Norming, Forming, Storming diagram
(thevisualfacilitator.com)
generating meaningful experiences
In Solos, I explored multi-sensory and immersive theatre to create a meaningful, unique audience experience as I critically examined the experience of my neurodiverse mind through the backdrop of ocean advocacy. A key takeaway was developing a curious and playful independent creative process by exploring a different sensory stimulus each week, such as experimental movement with blister packs, water spray, bubbles and looking into memory connected to smells, such as cinnamon and lavender. I called this planting the seeds in my creative garden as I collected the bits to see which would sprout and grow into something beautiful and thought provoking. Another key takeaway is to worry less, embrace the chaos and the unknown and trust the process, although easier said than done. I have developed many strategies to get out of my head, especially prioritising rest, meditation, mindfulness and connecting with the community around me.​​
An excerpt from my Solos Scrapbook depicting the creative process I called 'growing the seeds in my garden'
Collaborating through Creative Processes
Over the past three years, I have engaged in a wide variety of creative processes, whether that be director-led, independent processes, a traditional Japanese model or collaborative devising. I have worked hard to foster a collaborative, accessible, safe and respectful environment, with strong success in projects such as Showreels and Puppetry, as well as valuable challenges in others that have pushed me to grow. These experiences have helped me become more flexible, responsive and adaptable within the devising process.
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Looking forward, I am hopeful and confident that I have the knowledge, skills and experience gained over the last three years to contribute to and lead professional, collaborative processes in whatever my future holds as an emerging artist.
Echolocation 2025, Stephen Heath Photography
references
Callaghan, P. & Gordon, P. (2022). The Dreaming Path Indigenous thinking to change your life. NSW: Pantera.
Coleman, L. (2025). Creative Resilience Lecture BPA 2400. ECU Mt Lawley.
Fischer-Lichte, E., Weiler, C., & Jost, T. (2021). Dramaturgies of interweaving: engaging audiences in an entangled world. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003187233
Swain, R. (2006). Telling That Story: Marrugeku Company’s Creative Process in Western Arnhem Land, About Performance, 6, 14-37